Salinas, CA Zoning Overlays & Bonuses: Downtown Design Guide (2026)

330 (Design Standards for the Downtown Core (DC) Area) governs new construction inside the Central City Overlay District's downtown core. Under subsection (b), buildings with ground-floor residential uses get a maximum front and corner side yard of ten feet to accommodate stairs, porches, and entry features, and ground-floor residential is prohibited on parcels fronting Main Street except for lobbies, foyers, and courtyards serving upper-floor units. Subsection (c) requires at least fifty percent of street frontage on Main, Central, Gabilan, Alisal, and San Luis Streets (between Salinas and Monterey Streets) to be designed for ground-floor retail, with a minimum eighteen-foot ground-floor story height and no blank wall or opaque door exceeding ten feet in length.

Subsection (e), Mass and Scale, bars structures from intercepting a forty-five-degree inclined plane measured inward from ten feet above grade at an R-district boundary; on lots with a seventy-five-foot maximum height, no more than fifty percent of the frontage may rise to that height, with the remainder stepping back below a forty-five-degree plane starting at the fifty-foot level. 240. Subsection (w) governs downtown signage: can-type signs and freestanding pole signs are prohibited outright, wall signs may not exceed the width of the storefront, and master sign plans are mandatory for new multi-tenant buildings. 300(b).